sprouler

Have you found a tattooer you want to do the tattoo? If yes, you should take the idea to them, schedule an appointment, and have them draw something up for you. If no, you should look for a tattooer in your area who has a style you want to see your tattoo done in. You can do this by either dropping in to shops around you or looking on instagram or facebook or whatever. Find someone who has a style you like so you don't have to worry about the design.

I have a slightly different opinion than previous posters. I personally am very fond of large, busy works. It looks very mural-ish to me, and I think it can look very cool. However, I would still recommend taking your art to a tattooer with a similar style (Robert Borbas in Budapest comes to mind, although your style is a bit more simplistic than his) and have them re-draw it to fit your body better. That's an important part of a large scale tattoo that the new collector often overlooks: the shape of the body beneath the tattoo can wreak havoc with the composition of the tattoo and the composition of the tattoo can make the body look strange and misshapen. Ultimately you should end up doing what you want to do and not something you feel pressured into, but researching your artists before going through with this is going to work out in your favor tremendously.

I'm not really sure what all's going on here, but I do know that Sonju is a solid dude. So +1 on that, I guess.

It's not just a UK thing, it's a Washington and LA thing as well. It's a very peculiar concept to me that so many people treat tattoos as a fashion accessory; the "I like this tattoo where they have it, and I want it just like that on me" (ignoring that this person is very possibly built and proportioned very differently than they are. It's fine, not really offensive, and not really my problem; it just seems a bit like they're forgetting that this isn't the must-have phone that they can just trade in after a better one comes out.

An ex of mine referred to some Korean folk as being "oriental," to which my friend said "you know they're not spice traders, right?"

Man, Dobelman does some awesome stuff. His color palette alone is rad edit - back on topic, definitely stick with the griffin sans dates or any other "afterthought" ideas. The manticore idea would be slick if you were trying to cover your whole leg. If not, griffin and manticore on opposing calves (calfs?) would be really solid.